"Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

Adams sick of losing

Monday, January 17, 2011
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It isn't often we get to walk in the Steelers' shoes, especially the size 22s of the man so enormous that they call him "Flozell The Hotel." But Saturday night was one of those times. Saturday night, we all could relate to big offensive tackle Flozell Adams. Saturday night, we also learned a little more about why this Steelers team is so special and will go to Super Bowl XLV Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, if it can beat the New York Jets Sunday night in the AFC championship game at Heinz Field.

This was at halftime of the playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. Somehow, Adams made it through the first half but, finally, was brought to his knees, not because the Steelers trailed, 21-7, although that made every player on the team feel sick, but because of flu-like symptoms. Who among us hasn't been there? We just want to die when we're hugging the commode. Adams wanted to get back on the field to block the great Terrell Suggs and the other beasts on the Ravens' defense.

The Steelers' medical staff worked feverishly through halftime and the third quarter to get Adams well. "I had IVs, pills, shots [of anti-nausea medicine], everything you can think of," he said.

"It hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn't believe it. I don't think I've been sick like that since college. And to get sick now ... "

During the biggest game of his decorated pro career.

Adams, 35, spent his first 12 years in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys lost all five of its playoff games with him before beating the Philadelphia Eagles a year ago in the wild-card round. He signed as a free agent with the Steelers right before training camp after starting right tackle Willie Colon was lost for the season in the summer because of an Achilles' tendon injury.

Do you think Adams would love to get back to Dallas for the Super Bowl?

You have no idea.

"Flozell came here for one reason -- to win," Tomlin said. "He has all the money he needs and all the accolades. All he wants to do is win. His intentions are as pure as any player I've ever been around."

Adams' illness left the Steelers in a bad spot. Backup swingman Trai Essex had to jump into Adams' spot. That's not a good thing when Suggs and his bunch are the opponents.

The Steelers' problems got much worse when left tackle Jonathan Scott was banged up on the final play of the third quarter. Now, we're talking some serious juggling. Essex had to move to the left side. Backup Doug Legursky stepped in at right guard and bumped starter Ramon Foster to right tackle.

That's when something amazing happened. Something almost Willis Reed-like, if you will. As the players huddled up for the first play of the fourth quarter, Adams, who was aware that Scott was down, walked straight from the locker room to the sideline and right onto the field.

Actually, staggered is a better description.

"Dead Man Walking," teammate Brett Keisel called Adams.

Tomlin ran 20 yards onto the field to stop Adams. He and trainer John Norwig pulled him back to the sideline. This wasn't time for heroics from a guy who was so sick he could barely stand. Not against Suggs and Co., who were coming after Ben Roethlisberger with bad intentions.

"Wasn't it an awesome sight seeing him trying to go out there?" Tomlin asked. "I told him I appreciated him and what he was doing, but that, hopefully, we wouldn't need him."

The Steelers didn't, as it turned out. Scott recovered quickly and finished the game. Essex went back to right tackle and Foster to right guard. The Steelers won, 31-24, surviving and advancing.

"They made the right decision not letting me play," Adams said after the game. He appeared to be feeling better, if only because of the win. At least he no longer looked green.

"I could have let the whole team down if I had gone back in," Adams said. "I could have given up a sack or missed a block or got the quarterback killed. Better to have Trai and Doug in there. They did a **** good job. The whole line did. I'm so proud of 'em."

It's been that way all season. The line, though not nearly the best in the NFL, has been better than most people think despite playing without Colon and starting left tackle Max Starks and with rookie center Maurkice Pouncey. Sure, it allowed six sacks Saturday, three by the inimitable Suggs. But Tomlin wasn't concerned with that number. "We could have five Anthony Munozes on the line and we'd still give up sacks because of the quarterback. No. 7 is going to take some sacks. But he's going to make more big plays for us." The only numbers Tomlin cares about were on the scoreboard. "We're not interested in style points," he has said many times.

Adams expects to be ready when the Steelers take on the Jets. "I came here to win the Super Bowl. I'm one win from getting there."

The Steelers will start to look ahead to the Jets game when they report back to work today at their South Side compound. But Roethlisberger wanted to take one final look back at the Ravens game. Adams' willingness to play under such trying circumstances wasn't lost on him or the other players.

"That the way it is with this team," Roethlisberger said. "We would do anything for each other. Even get off a gurney. I mean, literally get off a gurney."

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

I thought he was going to be a bum when they signed him. I didn't necessarily think it was a bad move since they didn't have a lot of options. I think he has been the best right tackle we have had in a long time tbh.

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

Yeah I questioned the Flozell Adams signing when I saw him in preseason but now, he's an upgrade.
I wonder if we will have him back or Colon next season ?

It must be great for guys like Flozell, Clark, Farrior to finally be on a team that wins and can have a chance and have had the chance to go and win Super Bowls.

You have Foote, ARE and McFadden back after being gone and returning here from crummy teams and I think it has to have an affect on current players of our team. I hope these guys are telling them, " stick with the Steelers, money isn't everything. "

I know Fanecca left for some big money but now he has lost the chance to win a second Super Bowl with the Steelers and possibly a third Super Bowl with the Steelers. Now he has to watch his two team battle it out in the AFC championship. Got to be a little rough.

For a man who would be nicknamed "The Hotel" because of his immense size, Flozell Adams seemed a perfect fit for the football field.

But not in his mind.

Rather than filling his nights studying blocking schemes, Adams concentrated on English, science and Renaissance and Medieval history -- standard stuff for your typical 6-foot-5, 265-pound high school sophomore.

Now he is close to making history of his own -- earning his first Super Bowl ring in a career filled with accolades. As he's done all year, Adams will start at right tackle for the Steelers when they host the New York Jets on Sunday in the AFC Championship Game.

And he is just one win away from returning to Dallas, where he spent the first 12 seasons of his NFL career.

"It would be cool," Adams said of playing in the Super Bowl on the Cowboys' home field, "but that's not a major focus of mine. I don't care if it was in Europe, as long as I win the Super Bowl."

Adams started 178 games at left tackle for the Cowboys and made five Pro Bowls before getting released last April.

He didn't sign with the Steelers until late July after starting right tackle Willie Colon was lost for the year to an Achilles injury.

And he didn't fully commit to right tackle until Adams saw quarterback Byron Leftwich get flattened by a defensive lineman he was supposed to block.

That came in the Steelers' first preseason game against the Detroit Lions. The play only validated questions about whether Adams could make the transition from the left to the right side of the offensive line.

"Once I got to the sideline, I was thinking to myself, 'I've got some real work to do, and I'm going to definitely do it, and I'm going to make myself play right tackle the best I can,' " the 6-7, 338-pound Adams said. "I (made) the conscious decision that I'm going to work harder because I wanted to do it."

Adams might have never played football had Proviso West High coach David Glover not spotted him in the school's field house near the end of his sophomore year.

Adams hadn't played sports growing up outside of Chicago, and when Glover asked him about going out for the football team in the fall, Adams said he would think about it.

Glover pulled an end-around that summer, talking to Adams' mother. She, in turn, informed Adams that he would be playing football that season.

"She drove me up to training camp at the high school the first two days just to make sure I got on the field," Adams says. "At first I hated it. I was kind of getting beat up out there, and (Glover) kind of pulled me to the side one day and he told me that I needed to pick it up."

He did, eventually getting recruited by a host of Big Ten schools before signing with Michigan State. In East Lansing, Mich., Adams earned Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year honors -- and picked up his aforementioned moniker.

After a lengthy career in Dallas, he essentially started over after signing with the Steelers -- and not just because Adams didn't really know anyone when he arrived at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.

Steelers offensive line coach Sean Kugler has likened the switch Adams made to someone writing with their left hand for years, then having to do so with their right hand.

Adams went along with the position change. But he didn't embrace it until Leftwich got sacked by Lions defensive end Cliff Avril.

"He just went the wrong way," Leftwich said. "That's what preseason games are for, and we just laughed about it and went on to the next play. We knew there would be some things like that happen, but as you can see he's been playing his butt off at right tackle."

He has gone to extremes just to get on the field.

Take last Saturday.

Having left the AFC divisional playoff game because of flu-like symptoms and vomiting, Adams tried to stagger back onto the field in the fourth quarter after Jonathan Scott, who had moved from left tackle to replace him, went down with an injury.

Adams could barely stand, and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made sure he didn't re-enter the game.

"That was an ugly scene, but a beautiful one at the same time," Tomlin said. "We appreciate his intentions. His intentions are very pure. This guy wants to win. He wants to be a part of a winner."

Adams, 35, has another year left on his contract, and he said he is not considering retirement.

He wants to finish his career in Pittsburgh and will do so at right tackle, if that is what the Steelers want.

"I'm happy where I am. I'm not just saying that," Adams said. "Wherever I can go, just to participate with this organization, right tackle, left tackle, anything I can do I'm going to do."

"Neither have we, to be quite honest with you. The great thing about football, and particularly playoff football, is you guys can do all you want to try to write the script of how this game could potentially unfold all week. The reality is that nobody knows. That's why it's going to be awesome to be in the stadium at 6:30 on Sunday. Probably a week ago no one anticipated our score being 31-24 against the Ravens, but it was."

Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward saying after a Dec. 19 game that he could have been thrown to more often while Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis was covering him:

"I've been in the league 10 years. I haven't been around a receiver who didn't think he wasn't open."

"Braylon Edwards is playing really well. It kind of takes me back to the year that he had with Derek Anderson (for the Browns) my first year in the AFC North. He was a Pro Bowler. He made about every difficult catch that came his way. He was a big guy. He played to his personality. He made plays down the field. He is doing the same thing for the New York Jets this year."

What it means to be a Steeler:

"Win."

Whether he has grown since his first playoff game:

"If you're not getting better, I don't care what business you're in, you're a dead man. I try to look critically at the mistakes that I make and try to learn from them, like our team does. I like to think that I am."

Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor professes a desire to cover the opponent's top receiver, and Santonio Holmes fits the bill for the New York Jets. Holmes, MVP of Super Bowl XLIII for the Steelers, had six receptions for 40 yards in the 22-17 victory over the Steelers on Dec. 19 at Heinz Field, but only two catches for 20 yards against Taylor. Holmes and Taylor's statistics this season:

i know that there is a basic Anti-Arians conspiracy going on everywhere and everyone or just about everyone wants him fired BUT he's not going anywhere and looking right above is one big additional reason why. He will be evaluated for what his offense has been able to produce this season behind a Line that has been this battered and bruised. Assumptions will be made and projections will too about what coudlve been achieved with more health, talent and consistency in the OL.

Basically the guy is going to go nowhere. don't think it, expect it or whine about it. its going to take someone wanting him as a HC somewhere to not be the Steelers OC in the future.

I think Sean Kugler should get a **** award of some sort. What he has gotten these guys to do this season with what they've gone through is remarkable really

The Standard Is The Standard and The Pittsburgh Sports Forum Is The Standard

i know that there is a basic Anti-Arians conspiracy going on everywhere and everyone or just about everyone wants him fired BUT he's not going anywhere and looking right above is one big additional reason why. He will be evaluated for what his offense has been able to produce this season behind a Line that has been this battered and bruised. Assumptions will be made and projections will too about what coudlve been achieved with more health, talent and consistency in the OL.

Basically the guy is going to go nowhere. don't think it, expect it or whine about it. its going to take someone wanting him as a HC somewhere to not be the Steelers OC in the future.

I think Sean Kugler should get a **** award of some sort. What he has gotten these guys to do this season with what they've gone through is remarkable really

Or he just retires. He isn't going to get fired though that is for sure. I like what he has done this year tbh. If we can have a healthy or at least healthier line next yeah and Ben all year etc. Could really be something special. Well next year is hangover year tho right But Hotel wants to play next year? See ya Colon but that also means they gotta do good in the draft.

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

I thought he was going to be a bum when they signed him. I didn't necessarily think it was a bad move since they didn't have a lot of options. I think he has been the best right tackle we have had in a long time tbh.

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

Or he just retires. He isn't going to get fired though that is for sure. I like what he has done this year tbh. If we can have a healthy or at least healthier line next yeah and Ben all year etc. Could really be something special. Well next year is hangover year tho right But Hotel wants to play next year? See ya Colon but that also means they gotta do good in the draft.

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

At some point you have to concede to the fact that while he may not be some otherworldly genius coordinator he is pretty good what he does and is going the right things for this offense. I have said many times before it COULD be worse. It could DEFINABLY be worse. Watch what you wish for.

Re: "Flozell came here for one reason -- to win"

This was as close as I'd ever get to use the vomit guys, I had to take the shot.

Possibly Arian trys stuff through the season that we don't always agree upon or feel were the correct calls or just, WTF is he thinking.
Without jinxing him or our offense, he does call decent games in the playoffs. Or has the team prepared well enough at times.